All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

At the edge of the world, his journey begins.

Opening Statement

Playing upon the enduring romantic myth of Robinson Crusoe, Cast Away
reverses the fantasy and shows the hard reality of a modern man's life alone on
an island in an enormity of vastness, separated from all that he was and all
that he had. A first-class technical presentation and a second disc of extras
make Cast Away a worthy addition to the DVD family.

Facts of the Case

Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a man driven by time. As a FedEx executive, his
mission is to shape up distribution centers by endlessly preaching and driving
home the overriding importance of speed and awareness of time. His personal life
with girlfriend (soon to be fiancé?) Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt) is wedged in
between flights to foreign lands, scheduled within an inch of its life. Leaving
her one Christmas for yet another important FedEx mission overseas, Chuck's life
takes a dramatic turn. A peaceful trans-Pacific flight instantly changes into
chaotic disaster when a fire in the cargo hold precipitates a headlong crash
into the inky darkness of storm-tossed seas.

By luck and by fate, Chuck Noland survives the ordeal, washing up on the
shore of a small, utterly deserted island. Insects and marine life, but no
animals, make Chuck's isolation complete. Now faced with a life alien to him,
devoid of his job, his friends, and Kelly, Chuck struggles to meet his basic
needs of life. Using his own wits, determination, what materials the island
provides, and a potpourri of contents from a few washed-up FedEx packages, Chuck
achieves a semblance of a normal life. However, the drumbeat of time and total
isolation wears on Chuck's mind, making hope and spirit rare commodities. The
loneliness is so overwhelming that Chuck creates a companion from a volleyball
and an enraged, bloody handprint. He now has someone to talk to, and seemingly,
someone to talk to him.

Nearly four years after the crash, Chuck finds an unexpected gift of
materials bumping up on shore. It awakens in him a final spark of life, a total
determination to get off the island. Devoting every waking moment to the task,
Chuck constructs a raft, stocks it with supplies, and hopes that it is enough to
get him past the reef and terrible breakers around the island, and then out to
sea to meet the unknown, the rest of his life.

The Evidence

As technology continues to invade even the most remote outpost on the globe,
it becomes harder and harder to escape the mundane travails of modern life. A
traffic-clogged commute, a frenetic working day, an evening filled with domestic
and familial responsibilities, any one or combination of these can leave one
wishing for peaceful isolation on an island. The perverse pleasure of Cast
Away is that it takes a natural desire and pulls a grim turnabout,
wordlessly demonstrating in stark detail its ultimate folly. Be careful what you
wish for!

Tom Hanks (You've Got Mail, Saving Private Ryan, A League of Their Own) took a
high-wire risk in accepting the role of Chuck Noland, the time obsessed,
marooned FedEx executive. Cast Away is very much the Tom Hanks Show, as
one wag at the IMDb noted in his comments, and if Hanks failed, there was no
safety net. Indeed, during a sizable chunk of the movie Hanks must carry the
film solely on his back and with very little dialogue, and that directed to
himself or a blood-painted volleyball companion named Wilson. Furthermore, give
Hanks his well-earned respect for being willing to both fatten himself up for
the pre-crash Chuck Noland, but then to take a year off and transform himself
into lean, wild-man Chuck Noland. Hanks gives this role his all, and as usual,
it pays out bountiful dividends. Thoroughly human in his flaws, struggles,
despair, and desperate hope, Hanks' work deserved at least the Best Actor Oscar
nod that it received.

With other cast members on-screen for mere minutes at best, even Helen Hunt
(What Women Want, As Good As It Gets, "Mad About
You") has barely enough time to get warmed up. Her Kelly Frears serves in
the role, but still, with so little screen time, her contribution is
unfortunately minor. Everyone else at least blends into the landscape, neither
attracting nor distracting.

The narrative of Cast Away stretches in a three act format for nearly
two and a half hours, but given the tasks for it to accomplish, this is time
reasonably well-spent. Act I, a mere twenty minutes or so that sets up Noland's
frenzied job and his relationship with Kelly Frears, does what it needs to do
for the rest of the film to succeed, but the execution is imperfect. I hesitate
to recommend adding length to a film such as this, but given the
importance of Noland's love for Kelly Frears in Act II and Act III, the
relationship is given only superficial screen time. Act II, Noland's existence
on the island, is as engrossing a piece of storytelling that I have seen in a
long, long time. Told with few words, but with a masterful understanding of the
practical and psychological demands of enforced wilderness isolation,
screenwriter William Broyles Jr. (Planet
of the Apes, Entrapment, Apollo 13) deserves high praise here.
Act III, resolving the aftermath of Act II, does drag on a bit long. Some
judicious editing would have come in handy there.

The anamorphic transfer is first-rate. A crisp and clean picture with
excellent detail, you should be able to count the hairs on Tom Hanks' head
during his many close-up shots. Though Cast Away purposely avoids showing
the island as a tropical paradise, scenes of undeniable natural beauty, such as
azure seas, lush green vegetation, and stunning sunsets still demonstrate
delightfully rich color saturation. In all other respects, save for an
occasional blip, this is a feast for the eyes. In fact, the transfer is so good
you should have little trouble picking out which "night" scenes were
actually filmed in daytime and then heavily filtered.

The audio track, whether your choice is DTS or Dolby Digital, will rock your
world. Paradoxically, it is in the quietest of details that the worthiness of
the audio is most apparent. From Chuck Noland's arrival on the island, the sound
is deliberately mixed without background music and with a subtle atmosphere. The
smallest, most delicate crunch of sand upon sand, the whisper of wind flowing
through vegetation, the slow pounding of the tides, the sounds of Noland's
environment come through with vibrant, natural clarity. Lest you think your
speakers don't get a workout at higher power levels, rest easy. The FedEx plane
crash that maroons Noland is a sonic treat for all ears and all channels,
including paint loosening low frequencies, and rivals the famous train scene
from The Fugitive for its home
theater system "showoffability." Sound effects pan smoothly through
the channels and Alan Silvestri's (Who
Framed Roger Rabbit, Contact, Stuart Little) score, when allowed, flows
and fills the room.

When you get a second disc to house all the extras (aside from the
commentary track), that is generally a good sign that you have a legitimate
special edition on your hands. Overall, this is a solid Special Edition, though
not quite as deep or awe-inducing as the best. The commentary track, featuring
director Robert Zemeckis, director of photography Don Burgess, visual effects
supervisor Ken Ralston, co-visual effects supervisor Carey Villegas, and sound
designer Randy Thom, is certainly packed with technical and production details.
However, nearly two and a half hours of those details gets quite dry, without
Tom Hanks or a livelier bunch to keep things a little more energized.

The heart of the extra content is three of the sub-half hour featurettes,
each providing insight and depth into a particular subject area.
"Wilson" goes into the psychology of Chuck Noland's island companion,
which springs from the very human need for companionship. "The Island"
surveys the exhaustive location search, negotiating a two-year exclusive lease
with the Fijian tribal owners, the true geography, flora and fauna of the
island, how the crew interacted with their environment, and more. "S.T.O.P:
Surviving as a Castaway" looks into the process of wilderness survival and
how this reality dictated the evolution of William Broyles' script. (S.T.O.P.
refers to the survival mnemonic for Stop, Think, Observe and Plan.) Each is a
solid package, entertaining and informative, and among the best featurettes I
have seen. The other "Making of" featurette covers much the same
ground as the three other featurettes, though in a more abbreviated fashion and
with additional coverage of the overall process of bringing the idea of Cast
Away to reality.

Continuing through the second disc, the interview between Tom Hanks and
Charlie Rose (for the latter's eponymous television show) is simply engrossing.
Charlie Rose is a fine interviewer who draws out Tom Hanks, discussing not just
Cast Away as a whole, but the inner emotional life of Chuck Noland, as
well as the broad strokes of his career and his approach to his acting craft.
However, the flesh tones are horribly off, giving both Rose and Hanks very ruddy
complexions.

The special effect vignettes are six short film clips, with commentary by
visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston and co-visual effects supervisor Carey
Villegas, showing how the magic of CGI made so many of the shots in Cast
Away possible. The storyboard-to-film comparisons, still galleries, and
concept art are welcome bonuses. I particularly liked that the production stills
are presented as a continuous video set to Silvestri's score. The ten TV spots
and two theatrical trailers for Cast Away finish off the extra
content.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

As many commentators have complained, the main trailer for Cast Away
does a splendid job of totally spoiling the film. Though I was able to enjoy the
movie in the theater regardless, I know that many people would not be so
fortunate. If you have any idea of showing Cast Away to family or friends
who have not seen it, then by all means, don't show them the trailers until
after seeing the whole movie.

Closing Statement

Thoughtful, moving and even educational at times, Cast Away ($30
retail) is solid, well-crafted and well-acted entertainment that offers
excellent value for the money. If you don't wish to buy, you simply must at
least rent.

The Verdict

Thoroughly and completely acquitted on all counts. The Court thanks 20th
Century Fox for continuing to repair its now-distant reputation for DVD
indifference.